The Civil WarHistory of The Iowa National GuardCW2 David L. Snook

In April of 1861, most Iowans were going about the business of building a young state. Farms and towns were being established. Railroads connected most settled areas in the eastern part of the state and were gradually being extended westward. The Confederate attack on Fort Sumter changed everything. Personal concerns were put aside, and the entire state became involved in the war effort.

The War Department issued a call for volunteers and asked for one regiment from Iowa. Governor Samuel Kirkwood was uncertain if Iowa could raise the number of volunteers necessary to meet its quota, but enough men enlisted to form ten regiments.

Iowa’s 76,000 soldiers conducted themselves with honor throughout the war. Twenty-seven received Congressional Medals of Honor. Thirteen thousand died. Many more died from disease than from bullet wounds.

Three Iowans became major generals during the war. Samuel Curtis of Keokuk was a graduate of West Point. He was also a member of Iowa’s congressional delegation. He resigned from Congress in 1861 and commanded Iowa forces at the Battle of Pea Ridge. Grenville M. Dodge, an engineer and railroad builder, had settled in Council Bluffs in the 1850s. He recruited a company of volunteers at the start of the war and served under General Curtis at the Battle of Pea Ridge. He participated in many major battles (including Vicksburg and Chattanooga). He was wounded three times. Iowa’s youngest major general was Francis Herron, a Dubuque banker. He served at both Pea Ridge (1861) and Prairie Grove (1862).

Iowans fought in many battles. Iowa soldiers first saw combat at Wilson’s Creek, Missouri, and Pea Ridge, Arkansas. Early in the war, many Iowa units accompanied General Ulysses S. Grant in his campaign to gain control of the Mississippi River. They took part in the great battles of Fort Henry, Fort Donelson and Shiloh. At Shiloh, five Iowa regiments "saved" Grant’s army by holding the center of the Union line (called the "hornets’ nest" by attacking Confederates) until late in the first day of the battle. This campaign ended with the great Union victory at Vicksburg, Mississippi, on July 4, 1863. Iowa soldiers then fought in Mississippi and Tennessee. Finally, in the spring of 1865, thousands of Iowans took part in General William Tecumseh Sherman’s famous "March to the Sea" through Georgia and South Carolina.

Although cannon balls and bullets had been fired across the Des Moines River into Iowa dwellings, the only actual fighting in Iowa occurred in 1864. Missouri "guards" raided Davis County, robbing, looting and murdering. Bloomfield’s county fair was in progress, and a posse was organized under Colonel James Weaver. Unfortunately, the raiders disappeared across the Missouri border before they could be apprehended.

The first Iowan to die in combat during the Civil War was Private Cyrus W. West, Company H, 3rd Iowa Infantry, as a result of friendly fire on July 11, 1861 during a fight with Confederate cavalry at Monroe, Missouri; the second was Private John A. Gibbons, 1st Regiment, US Cavalry, on August 2, 1861 at the Battle of Dug Springs, Missouri; the third was Private Shelby Norman, Company A, 1st Iowa Infantry, killed in action at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, Missouri, August 10, 1861.

The youngest Iowan to serve in the war may have been Cyrus Lichty of Cedar Falls. Lichty was only twelve when he enlisted as a drummer boy in 1861. He survived until 1940.

Iowa also gained fame for a unique military unit known as the Graybeard Regiment. The unit was composed of men too old to serve in combat (over 45). Nearly all were over 50. Many were in their 70s, and a few were in their 80s! The Graybeards enlisted in spite of the fact that they had a total of 1,300 sons and grandsons on the fighting front. The elderly men were not expected to fight but were given duties of escorting trains and guarding railroads and prisoners. Near Memphis, a supply train they were guarding was fired on by rebels; two of the Graybeards were killed, but the rest got the train through. During their service, they guarded 160,000 prisoners. Iowa was the only state to have a Graybeard Regiment.

Like their husbands, sons, fathers and brothers, Iowa women performed heroic service during the Civil War. Many organized Soldiers Aid Societies to raise money to buy food, clothing and medicines for sick and wounded soldiers. Some, like Annie Turner Wittenmeyer, followed Iowa units across the South, setting up hospitals and "diet kitchens." Others, like Mrs. M. J. Upright, managed farms that continued to supply the needs of both the civilian population of the North and the thousands of soldiers fighting in the South. Mrs. Upright’s situation was especially interesting. She single-handedly operated the large family farm near Aplington, while her husband and twelve sons served in the Union Army.

Iowa’s Major Generals

Samuel Curtis

Samuel Curtis was the first and oldest of Iowa’s major generals. He was born in New York on February 3, 1807. A West Point graduate, a veteran of the Mexican War, and a member of Iowa’s congressional delegation in 861, he obviously possessed the qualifications for a senior military command.

When the Civil War broke out, Curtis became an active recruiter, and on June 1, 1861, was named colonel of the Second Iowa Infantry. He was soon promoted to brigadier general and resigned his congressional seat. In December, 1861, he was placed in command of the District of Southwest Missouri. After defeating the forces of Confederate General Sterling Price in the Battle of Pea Ridge, he was made a major general. (Brigham, Johnson, Iowa – Its History and Foremost Citizens, The J. S. Clarke Publishing Company, 1918, p. 353)

Because of his strong anti-slavery beliefs, he was transferred, in January of 1864, from the Department of Missouri to the Department of Kansas. In Kansas, he again defeated General Price, who was attempting to capture Fort Leavenworth. (Brigham, 354)

At the conclusion of the Civil War, Curtis was made a United States commissioner to negotiate treaties with various Indian tribes, thus clearing the way for the extension of the Union Pacific Railroad.

General Curtis died at Council Bluffs, Iowa, on December 26, 1866.

Francis Herron

Francis Herron was Iowa’s youngest major general. He was also a recipient of the Medal of Honor.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1837 and educated at Western University, Herron came to Dubuque in 1855 and entered the banking business. A the start of the Civil War, he responded to the first call for volunteers, and his company, the "Governor’s Greys," became Company I, First Iowa Infantry. He led his men at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, and, upon returning to Iowa, was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the Ninth Iowa. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for gallantry at the Battle of Pea Ridge in 1862. The citation states that he was "foremost in leading his men, rallying them to repeated acts of daring, until himself disabled and taken prisoner." He was soon exchanged, and his performance at the Battle of Prairie Grove resulted in his promotion to major general. (Brigham, 355)

At the siege of Vicksburg, in 1863, Herron’s troops occupied the left of General Ulysses Grant’s line. After the capitulation of the city, he was transferred to the Department of the Gulf, where he participated in the siege of Mobile. He resigned from the army in 1865. He then became involved in various business enterprises in both New Orleans and New York City. He died in New York on January 8, 1902. (Brigham, 356)

Grenville M. Dodge

Grenville Dodge is considered by many historians to be Iowa’s greatest Civil war general. (Brigham, 342) Dodge also played a major role in post-Civil War history. As an explorer and chief engineer for the Union Pacific Railway, he helped to build the first transcontinental railroad.

Grenville Mellen Dodge was born in Danvers, Massachusetts, on April 12, 1831. He attended Norwich Military Academy in Newbury, Vermont, graduating as a civil engineer in 1850. In the early 1850s, Dodge worked as a surveyor for railroad companies in Illinois and Iowa. From 1853 to 1860, he led several expeditions, which explored large areas of the Great Plains, while conducting preliminary surveys for the Union Pacific Railway.

In 1861, the Civil War interrupted Dodge’s life, as it did millions of his countrymen. After raising a company of volunteers in Council Bluffs, he became a member of Governor Samuel Kirkwood’s staff and was sent to Washington to secure arms for Iowa troops. He obtained 6,000 muskets and was offered a commission in the Regular Army. He declined, preferring to serve in the Iowa Militia.

Commissioned as a colonel, Dodge took command of the 4th Iowa Infantry on June 17, 1861. Although wounded twice during the Missouri campaigns of 1861 and 1862, Colonel Dodge led his men in the capture of Springfield (February, 1862) and commanded the right flank of Union forces at the Battle of Pea Ridge (March, 1862), which held against a greatly superior Confederate force.

As a reward for his service in Missouri, Colonel Dodge was promoted to brigadier general and put in command of the Central Division of the Army of the Tennessee. Successful campaigns followed in Tennessee and Mississippi.

In the fall of 1863, General Ulysses S. Grant gave Dodge’s troops a special assignment – repairing and reopening the Nashville and Decatur Railway, which would reduce logistical problems faced by Union forces in the South. In Grant’s words, "General Dodge, besides being a most capable officer, was an experienced railroad builder. He had no tools to work with other than those of the pioneers – axes, picks and spades. With these, he was able to entrench his men and protect them against (enemy attack)…General Dodge had the work assigned to him finished within forty days of receiving his orders. The number of bridges to rebuild was 182, many of them over wide and deeps chasms; the length of the road repaired was 102 miles." (Brigham, 342)

"In the Atlanta campaign of 1864, General Dodge commanded the 16th Army Corps. The 2nd, 7th and 39th Iowa regiments served in this corps. General Dodge joined General Sherman in early May and soon engaged in a winning movement to Resaca (in northwestern Georgia), forcing General Johnston to abandon his position in Dalton. In this campaign, Dodge held the right flank of General Sherman’s army. For his gallant service, the double star of the major general was conferred upon him. Before Atlanta, the general was wounded for the third time." (Brigham, 346)

In November of 1864, Dodge was placed in command of the Department of Missouri. In January of 1865, the Departments of Kansas, Nebraska and Utah were added to his command. In 1865-1866, headquartered in St. Louis, he oversaw the Indian campaigns on the plains, protecting overland routes to California.

In May of 1866, Dodge retired from the service and was elected to Congress. Declining renomination after one term, the general devoted himself to the completion of the transcontinental railroad, serving as chief engineer of the Union Pacific Railway. Completed in May of 1869, the project was one of the great engineering feats of the nineteenth century.

Dodge died in Council Bluffs on January 3, 1916. His home there is now a museum. He was remembered as "one of the great soldiers of the War of the Rebellion whose after-record ranks with their record in the field."

In 1905, a state Militia Training Camp was established just north of Des Moines and named in the general’s honor. Greatly expanded in 1914, it served as a training center for over 40,000 men during World War I. Today, Camp Dodge is the state headquarters of the Iowa National Guard.